Silchester: A Roman Town in Hampshire

An iron age and roman site from the early history of great Britain

For 50 years before the arrival of Cladius' army, the town of Calleva Atrebatum (The town in the woods of the Atrebates tribe) was growing into a flourishing town built in the roman style. The buildings were squared rather than the traditional rounded Iron age buildings we would expect to see. However, this Celtic Oppidum was soon to become a Tribal Civitas Capital once invaders from across the sea arrived.

Around 55 CE the Roman Empire arrived and they quickly relaid the town to a North/South Grid. Some Iron Age buildings were left standing on old alignments (notably house 1 of Insula IX) indicating that for some of the occupants, the transferal to Roman dominion may not have been too painful an experience.

Calleva was a market town rather than a military fort and so the archaeology tells us much about the lives of ordinary people of the time. Wells and rubbish pits have produced evidence about the variety of the Roman diet and also the various commercial activities which went on in town.

Silchester was completely abandoned at the end of the Roman occupation of Britain and therefore much remains buried a few feet beneath fields. The entire layout of the town is still visible in crop marks at certain times of the year. The Roman walls still stand in a complete circle around the site. Outside the north east corner of the town walls is the magnificently preserved amphitheatre which could have held around 4,000 spectators.

A Short Film about Silchester presented by Adam Hart-Davis

Close up of a fragment of Roof Tile from Calleva Insula IX

Reconstructive Picture (Hampshire Council website)

Archaeology of Silchester (Reading University site)

Drawing of the 'four seasons' mosaic found in 1901 in House 1 of Insula XXVII

How to get there (map from multimap) Silchester is midway between Basingstoke and Reading in the South of England. A small museum of finds is a short walk from the north of the wall.